What happened to the ‘star’ signings your club never made?

Fans always get excited when the transfer window comes around.

Your team is linked with a big-name signing and you start to dream they could be the ones to lead your club to glory.

Tottenham fans might have felt this way a few years ago when they were strongly linked with a young, prolific striker from Nigeria by the name of Gift Orban.

They had every reason, on paper at least, to be excited.

In the summer of 2023, Orban, then 21, was regarded as one of the hottest prospects in the game.

After scoring 16 goals in 22 games for Norwegian top-flight side Stabaek, he moved to Belgian side Gent and continued his impressive goalscoring record, netting 20 times in 22 matches.

In a wild four-day period in March 2023, he scored seven goals in two matches. He got four in a 6–2 away league win over Zulte Waregem, becoming the first Gent player with a four-goal haul in one game in the 21st Century.

He then followed up with a quick-fire hat-trick in a 4–1 away victory over Istanbul Basaksehir in the Conference League last 16.

That hat-trick was completed within three minutes and 25 seconds, at the time a record in Uefa club competitions.